The Life in the Land Project Receives Montana Watershed Stewardship Award
Elevating Holistic, Community-Focused Conservation across Montana
The Life in the Land documentary film and podcast series has become a touchstone for sharing the benefits of holistic, collaborative conservation initiatives across Montana. Through four films and 23 podcast episodes, the Life in the Land Project is building support and understanding for the Watershed Approach to conservation, elevating the voices of community leaders, ranchers, conservationists, and others from rural and tribal communities and showing how they are working together to promote resilient communities and landscapes for all life to thrive.
The project came about when a group of Montanans involved in collaborative conservation partnered with filmmaker Lara Tomov of Stories for Action. This group and other community members have provided a vision and direction for the project from the beginning, involving local people in crafting their own narratives. The content from Blackfeet Nation was Co-Produced by Lailani Upham of Iron Shield Creative.
The films feature the Big Hole Valley (featuring the Big Hole Watershed Committee), Central Montana Plains (featuring the Musselshell Watershed Coalition, Winnett ACES, the Matador Ranch, Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, and others), Blackfeet Nation (featuring Piikani Lodge Health Institute and other community members speaking to connections to the land and traditional lifeways), and the Seeley-Swan Region (featuring Swan Valley Connections, Clearwater Resource Council, Pyramid Lumber, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Forestry Department, and the Mission Mountain Youth Crew). The podcasts include the full interviews from the films as well as additional topics centered around collaborative and community-based approaches in Montana. Two additional films (one on community development work in Wyola in the Apsáalooke Nation, and one featuring messages of community connections to the Upper Yellowstone River) and 4 additional podcast episodes are in progress.
Sharing the Importance of Local, Collaborative Conservation
Since the Life in the Land Project launched in Spring 2022, the films have provided a platform for communicating the importance of the Watershed Approach to conservation, where diverse community partners with different perspectives come together to care for their common home. By highlighting these partnerships and the nuance that exists in Montana’s communities and watersheds, Life in the Land hopes to promote dialogue, open minds, and be an antidote to current divides and prejudices.
Life in the Land films are free to view at LifeintheLand.org, and the project provides a film screening discussion guide that communities have used to share the project’s message: that true resilience for all life within a watershed depends on recognizing the interconnectedness of all elements of people and place. The films have been a part of community screenings, workshops, high school and university curricula, and more across Montana. They have also been featured in film festivals across the country and in the UK and Mexico. In addition, the films received 6,000 online views in the project’s first 10 months.
Recognizing an Inclusive, Community-Inspired Project
In recognition of the Life in the Land Project’s holistic approach to sharing the value of inclusive, community-based conservation, MWCC has selected this project as a 2023 Watershed Stewardship Award recipient. The biennial Wetland and Watershed Stewardship Awards are a joint project of MWCC and the Montana Wetland Council (MWC) to honor individuals and groups who embody excellence and commitment to wetland or watershed conservation, protection, and restoration. Award recipients will be honored at a ceremony co-hosted by MWCC and MWC on Wednesday, April 26 at the Holter Museum in Helena. The ceremony will be part of the 2023 MWCC Annual Meeting.